Culture and Privilege in Capitalist Asia - Jurusan Antropologi ...

222 STRATIFICATION AND MOBILITY IN URBAN CHINA
Maoist China: often commercial interests also involve political and bureaucratic
interests. This makes life in reformed China often uncertain and capricious;
especially for business people and entrepreneurs. In these circumstances, the trust
and certainty that comes through close personal relationships is in itself an
important asset, especially where the people concerned occupy influential or
resource-rich positions. In this unstable context, where becoming wealthy is often
based on reading the unpredictable currents of market forces and official policy,
friends and kin play an important role in ‘making it’.
This is clear from both survey and interview data. In interviews, I asked
respondents to discuss when and how they turned to family, friends and other
personal relations for assistance. Although many expressed reluctance to burden
their friends or embarrass themselves by seeking out ‘connections’, there were
many instances where the information or influence of a ‘connection’ was an
important factor in, for example, obtaining a lucrative job or sealing a business
deal. At the same time, a number of informants, especially those with higher
education or in high-status jobs, expressed unease at drawing too frequently on
friends to solve material or instrumental problems, partly out of a sense of selfrespect
but also, as one respondent described: ‘If you go to a friend for help too
often, then sooner or later he’s going to want you to help him; and if you can’t do it,
that’s just losing face (diu mianzi).’
Similarly, in another case, a friend of an informant was able to make a
considerable profit (just how much I never found out) by using the professional
contacts of the informant to obtain preferential treatment in a real-estate purchase.
Shaking his head, my informant said: ‘If we weren’t such close classmates from
university, I wouldn’t have done it. These days, there’s too much corruption and
pulling connections, but that’s how everybody does things.’ Another example of the
nature of personal social ties comes from a sales representative for the branch
office of a Japanese pharmaceutical firm. She originally studied pharmacy at
Beijing Medical University and was introduced to her current job by a university
class-mate who also worked in the office. As she explained, several other of her
university class-mates also found work in the company in a chain-like movement
from their former jobs: ‘Jobs like this pay well, but there’s lots of pressure from the
boss. Since we’ve known each for quite a long time, we know they’ll do their job but
won’t try to show off too much.’ On the other hand, it was common for
respondents to stress the dangers and irksome responsibilities involved in, for
example, finding employees or business help through personal ties: there was
always the danger that such an employee would perform badly, reflecting badly on
the person in question.
These instances of the power of social connections in urban Chinese society are
confirmed, but also qualified, by an analysis of the survey data. In the survey,
respondents were asked if they had ever given or received assistance or advice, in
a variety of situations, from those they called friends. In another section,
respondents were also asked how they had found their present and previous jobs;
if through personal ties, they were asked to describe the characteristics of the